Dell Increases Adoption of SupportAssist with Smart Strategies

The Issue You Tackled

Dell faced a challenge where the market adoption of their high-tech and smart predictive maintenance system, SupportAssist, was not at the desired level. SupportAssist has the capability to continuously receive data from millions of Dell devices globally, store it in the cloud, and predict the likelihood of failure in Dell devices through its intelligent engine. It is a useful tool that can prevent computer failures, which is especially critical in high-risk industries such as energy and healthcare. Despite all the benefits, SupportAssist was not gaining traction in the market.

What You Actually Did

We were engaged to develop a system dynamics model to analyze the market adoption and performance of Dell’s SupportAssist. Our models were built based on the past successful cases of system dynamics applications to market adoption problems, as well as expert knowledge from the field. Throughout the process with a duration of 2 years, the client was engaged and multiple iterations of the model were offered, utilizing various data sources from the company.

We validated the model by replicating past data from Dell and also developed a user-friendly interface using Forio that works as a flight simulator for decision makers. The interface allows decision makers to compare different strategies through “what-if” analysis, and can inform strategic decision making. In addition, our models were informed by supplementary statistical techniques and textual analysis of their archival data.

The Results

Our simulation models challenged the client’s mental model on several of their strategies, such as their focus on promoting evaluation, short-term marketing campaigns, retention of disconnected clients, and sole focus on design features and marketing resources. The model pointed to a major “leakage” in the pipeline of their customers. We offered a combination of strategies with a focus on mass penetration (few customers using SupportAssist in more devices) and periodic value generation beyond fixing failure. The benefits of the new strategies are estimated to be in the order of M over a period of 5 years.

In addition, the entire discussion around the model helped Dell to have a different dynamic perspective on the problem of market adoption, and promoted more effective dialogue within the organization.

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